[NTLUG:Discuss] Tar Exclude file question

[David Camm]

i may be having a senior moment, but my recollection is that tar is expecting 
actual filenames, rather than directory names. it MAY be that file globbing 
would work, so you might want to try:

dir1/*
dir2/*
etc....

david camm
advanced web systems
www.advwebsys.com

Stephen Davidson wrote:
> Greetings.
> 
> I am trying to put together a custom backup script using tar.  Due to 
> file size limitations, I need to break the tar file down into some 
> smaller chunks.  So. what I am trying to do is tar this one directory, 
> w/o several very large subdirectories in it.  Each subdirecty in 
> question (about 6 out of 20) will be its own tar ball.
> 
> So I figured I would run tar on the directory, and list the 
> subdirectories in question as exclusions using the -X option.  Problem 
> is, when I put more than one file in the excludefiles.txt file, tar 
> won't add anything.  So what is the format for multiple files?  I have 
> tried several variations;
> 
> first idea;
> dir1
> dir2
> dir3
> 
> second idea
> dir1 dir2 dir3
> 
> third idea
> dir1, dir2, dir3
> 
> So what should it be?
> 
> Thanks,
> Steve
>